Abstract
Road safety in primary school areas is a delicate issue due to the vulnerability of children as road users. They are inexperienced traffic participants and sometimes their behavior in traffic situations is unpredictable. This paper reports a safety analysis conducted using video processing of conflict trajectories of vehicles and active transportation users (AT users). The videos were collected using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as this technology does not affect the actual behavior of traffic participants. Due to their airborne position, UAVs can conveniently gather information about driving behaviors and the exact positions of various participants. The safety analysis was conducted using surrogate indicators suitable for evaluating the risk of potential collisions as they incorporate both spatial proximity and speed. Three conflict indicators were used in the safety analysis: (i) time-to-collision, (ii) post-encroachment time, and (iii) heavy braking. The methodology was tested in a primary school area in the city of Zagreb. With the applied methodology, a total of 43 potential conflicts were identified in the school area (14 time-to-collision, 23 post-encroachment time, and 6 heavy braking). Based on the determined potential conflicts, safety measures were proposed to decrease the number and severity of potential conflicts and to increase traffic safety near school areas.
Highlights
IntroductionThis paper focuses on one of the busiest mixed-traffic environments: school areas
Received: 10 December 2021This paper focuses on one of the busiest mixed-traffic environments: school areas.The main reason for this focus is the vulnerability of the traffic users in these areas, who are young children participating in mixed traffic
The methodology for determining traffic safety near school areas is presented through several steps: (i) selection of school areas, (ii) unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) data collection, (iii) data processing, (iv) data analysis, and (v) surrogate safety indicators
Summary
This paper focuses on one of the busiest mixed-traffic environments: school areas. The main reason for this focus is the vulnerability of the traffic users in these areas, who are young children participating in mixed traffic. The main aim of the present paper was to develop a new methodology for the analysis of child safety in school zones using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) and image detection technology. School children are recognized as one of the groups most at risk of involvement in traffic accidents resulting in death or serious injury [1]. Pedestrian accidents remain one of the greatest causes of injury, disability, and death [2]. In 2018, the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) published a report on child deaths on European roads, showing that one-third of all children killed on European roads were pedestrians [3]
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